known in the world, will not be thought erroneous in appointing houſes of repreſentatives.
In every republic, in the ſmalleſt and moſt popular, in the larger and more ariſtocratical, as well as in the largeſt and moſt monarchical, we have obſerved a multitude of curious and ingenious inventions to balance, in their turn, all thoſe powers, to check the paſſions peculiar to them, and to controul them from ruſhing into thoſe exorbitancies to which they are moſt addicted—the Americans will then be no longer cenſured for endeavouring to introduce an equilibrium, which is much more profoundly meditated, and much more effectual for the protection of the laws, than any we have ſeen, except in England:—we may even queſtion whether that is an exception.
In every country we have found a variety of orders, with very great diſtinctions. In America, there are different orders of offices, but none of men; out of office all men are of the ſame ſpecies, and of one blood; there is neither a greater nor a leſſer nobility—Why then are they accuſed of eſtabliſhing different orders of men? To our inexpreſſible mortification we muſt have remarked, that the people have preſerved a ſhare of power, or an exiſtence in the government, in no country out of England, except upon the tops of a few inacceſſible mountains, among rocks and precipices, in territories ſo narrow that you may ſpan them with an hand's breadth, where, living unenvied, in extreme poverty, chiefly upon paſturage, deſtitute of manufactures and commerce, they ſtill exhibit the moſt charming picture of life, and the moſt dignified character of human nature.
